Four dead trees removed

Late last summer four Port Orford Cedar trees by our house died from a root fungus disease. We weren’t very surprised, since one Port Orford had already died of the same problem in 2012. Our tree guy took two down in late November and finally got back to us this week to drop the remaining two.

I’m glad these tree are gone as they were way too close to the house for comfort. We have four more cedars by the house that haven’t been affected yet (only two are Port Orford’s). Hopefully they will stay healthy.

The area where the trees died is a warm season roosting site for Turkey Vultures. At one time I had wanted to use this area as a shade garden. However, each summer vast quantities of poop fall from the trees and coat the ground, thus making it a less than ideal space to lounge.

The nice thing about removing all the dead cedars is that it finally highlights our beautiful Sequoia tree. We plan on acidifying the soil (good for moss/conifers/rhodies and bad for grass) and planting a lot of rhododendrons along with some Dogwoods. Mowing through vulture poop all summer isn’t a job I wish to continue.

5 Responses to Four dead trees removed

Those are impressively tall trees! I’m sure it was hard to watch them slowly die and be cut down, but that’s nature. I love your idea of planting rhodos and dogwood. I’m sure they’d thrive like most everything seems to be doing in your neck of the woods.

They actually died really fast. It was more painful thinking about the cost of having them cut down and the clean up. 🙂 There are still a lot of trees by the house so it doesn’t feel bare by any means. Last summer a local nursery went out of business and we kinda went crazy. Right now we have 14 rhodies waiting to be planted as soon as those trees get cleaned up.

He talked about fertilizer treatment, but I don’t remember anything that was specifically anti-fungal. Another one died in the last two months, which brings us down to a single remaining Port Orford. At this point, I think I’ll just wait for the last one and have it dropped as well. I’m thankful most of the trees are other species.